Traditional printed circuits are often constructed in what is commonly called rigid or flexible formats. The rigid versions are used in nearly every electronic system, where the printed circuit board (PCB) is essentially a laminate of materials and circuits that when built is relatively stiff or rigid and cannot be bent significantly without damage.
Flexible circuits have become very popular in many applications where the ability to bend the circuit to connect one member of a system to another has some benefit. These flexible circuits are made in a very similar fashion as rigid PCB's, where layers of circuitry and dielectric materials are laminated. The main difference is the material set used for construction. Typical flexible circuits start with a polymer film that is clad, laminated, or deposited with copper. A photolithography image with the desired circuitry geometry is printed onto the copper, and the polymer film is etched to remove the unwanted copper. Flexible circuits are very commonly used in many electronic systems such as notebook computers, medical devices, displays, handheld devices, autos, aircraft and many others.
Flexible circuits are processed similar to that of rigid PCB's with a series of imaging, masking, drilling, via creation, plating, and trimming steps. The resulting circuit can be bent, without damaging the copper circuitry. Flexible circuits are solderable, and can have devices attached to provide some desired function. The materials used to make flexible circuits can be used in high frequency applications where the material set and design features can often provide better electrical performance than a comparable rigid circuit.
Flexible circuits are connected to electrical system in a variety of ways. In most cases, a portion of the circuitry is exposed to create a connection point. Once exposed, the circuitry can be connected to another circuit or component by soldering, conductive adhesive, thermosonic welding, pressure or a mechanical connector. In general, the terminals are located on an end of the flexible circuit, where edge traces are exposed or in some cases an area array of terminals are exposed. Often there is some sort of mechanical enhancement at or near the connection to prevent the joints from being disconnected during use or flexure. In general, flexible circuits are expensive compared to some rigid PCB products. Flexible circuits also have some limitations regarding layer count or feature registration, and are therefore generally only used for small or elongated applications.
Tester interface circuit boards are typically specialty versions of traditional rigid PCBs. Tester interface board are often very thick, with many layers required to provide the required connections to the tester.
One type of tester interface circuit board is a Device Under Test (DUT) or Load Board, which are typically fabricated to accept a test socket or contactor on the top surface, and have a series of land grid array pads on the under surface that mate with a field of spring probes that are mated with the tester electronics. For wafer probing applications, a similar scenario is established, where the tester interface PCB often includes a probe card assembly. In some probe applications, a space transformer is used to transition or redistribute the fine terminal pitch of the wafer probe to the larger pitch required for connection with the tester.
In general, tester interface circuits boards, space transformers, and probe cards can be very expensive compared to higher volume PCBs, and often have long lead times. In many cases, the tester interface circuit boards and probe cards are specific to a particular electrical device and cannot be used for testing other electrical devices.